DGtlRift's Journal: Ofoto International

Ofoto has just launched 4 new European sites. Ofoto UK, Ofoto France, Ofoto Germany, and Ofoto EU. All four are really just the same site and backend with different languages and whether you want to deal with UK Pounds or Euros.

It has the same familiar interface as the US site with the exception that they cannot print calendars and other fancy stuff yet.

The most noticeable downfall of this site is that the backend database is not linked to the Ofoto US site. This means that you have to create an Ofoto EU account even if you already have an Ofoto US account. I thought this was kind-a lame, but I figured it had to do with the EU Privacy Protection Directive.

Oh, but it gets even lamer. Let's say you want to send pictures to friends in Europe and the states - if you order them from your Ofoto US account they will all be printed in the US and shipped to the respective locations in the states and Europe - if you order them from your EU Ofoto account they will all be printed in the EU and shipped to the respective locations in the states and Europe. This may not seem like an issue except that international shipping is pricy and slow. I ordered photos to be sent to Europe and it took over a month to get there and cost $25 - I also had photos printed for myself and it took about 4 days to ship it state-to-state and cost $3.50.

I wrote to support about how to print orders from Ofoto US in Ofoto EU printing centers, and they said I needed to open an EU account, upload the images, and print them from the EU account. Well that's great except I sent rolls of film to Ofoto, so I don't have digital images, and ofoto only gives you a web preview of the actual high-res picture. Since ofoto will not scan film, I would have to order a photo CD from them ($10 + shipping) in order to get the high-res images, wait four days for it to get to me and then upload it to the other Ofoto site. To me this is super lame. What is the point? There is nothing technically that would stop them from being able to print these images remotely.

To me it sounds like two completely different companies where the new European company just bought the rights to use the software that the US company developed and were too lazy to change the logo.

EU

[sbuckhopper]

I think that you have a valid rant in most cases against ofoto here, but I also think that a large number of problems with mailing picture links comes from the handcuffs that the EU puts on non-EU countries to do business with them.

You're seeing the disadvantage of the EU in the respect of integration. Though it would be possible to do so, their stupid laws put so much overhead on the process that it is not practical and most certainly cannot be done in a timely manner.

Sorry for the rant, but those a